expression profiles of the FACS-purified NPCs there were 18 genes with significant expression differences between BD-patient NPCs relative to unaffected parental control NPCs (> 1.5 fold change; p-value < 0.05, Benjamini-Hochberg corrected) (Fig. 4C; Fig. 5A). Amongst this set of differentially expression genes in the BD-patient NPCs were three genes encoding homeodomain-containing transcription factors, NKX2-2 (NK2 homeobox 2), NKX6-1 (NK6 homeobox 1), and IRX3 (iroquois homeobox 3) that are known to function in Sonic Hedgehog (SHH)-dependent neural patterning to specify the identity of ventral progenitor-derived neurons. In addition several NPC specific genes were differentially downregulated in the BD-patient NPCs: PAX6 (paired box gene 6a), DACH1 (dachshund homolog 1), and PLZF (promyelocytic leukemia zinc finger protein; ZBTB16), along with DISC1 (disrupted in schizophrenia 1), the latter of which has been shown to be critical for the regulation of neurogenesis and is implicated in the etiology of multiple neuropsychiatric disorders9,11,46,47.
